Youngstown man admits dumping toxic fracking waste into Mahoning River

[rdharma]

Youngstown man admits dumping toxic fracking waste into Mahoning River

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An employee of a Youngstown company that stored, treated and disposed of oil and gas drilling liquids admitted this morning to dumping tens of thousands of gallons of fracking waste on at least 24 occasions into a tributary of the Mahoning River.

Michael Guesman appeared in U.S. District Court where he pleaded guilty to a charge of unpermitted discharge of pollutants under the Clean Water Act. He faces a sentence of about a year in federal prison, although his time could be reduced by the amount of assistance he provides to prosecutors, and his acceptance of responsibility for his crime.

Guesman 34, of Cortland, said he acted on the orders of his boss at Hardrock Excavating, owner Benedict Lupo, when ran a hose from the 20,000-gallon storage tanks to a nearby storm water drain and opened the release valve. A gusher of waste liquid left over from hydraulic fracturing operations -- commonly known as "fracking" -- poured into the drain, sending saltwater brine and a slurry of toxic oil-based drilling mud, containing benzene, toluene and other hazardous pollutants, flowing into the Mahoning, prosecutors said.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/08/youngstown_man_admits_dumping.html

[life long demo]

1. Wow a year in federal prison, that'll teach them - not

Who thought up these ridiculous sentences. He poisoned the water. What if he was a terrorist and he poisoned the water, would it be the same sentence? It's the same crime.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

2. THE OIL RISES TO THE TOP

MONEY WILL BUY ANY ONE

[progressoid]

3. Not to worry. I'm sure his boss with get a stern tongue lashing as well.

[arikara]

4. What about the boss that ordered it?

He's just as much to blame. The employee wouldn't have done it without being told to.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. They should be put in jail for decades and the company disbanded.

[rdharma]

6. It's time to make some really angry calls to the Governor

And also to his appointed stooges in the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Not that they give a damn....... but it'll make you feel better.

It's time to start making some very angry calls to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

http://epa.ohio.gov/Portals/47/facts/TableofOrganization.pdf

[Divernan]

7. The "boss" is the OWNER of multiple OTHER fracking related companies, as well.

Hardrock Excavating is one of several (over a dozen) oil and gas drilling-related companies Ben Lupo owns in the Youngstown area. It houses 58 20,000-gallon storage tanks.

He's been poisoning the waters of Ohio and Pennsylvania for nigh onto TWENTY YEARS!
http://www.shalereporter.com/blog/kimberley_sirk/article_1a31f014-7c4f-11e2-b1e7-0019bb30f31a.html#user-comment-area

What's more, the Youngstown Vindicator has paid attention to Lupo's misadventures for quite some time. Seems as though Lupo has a history of disposing of his company's waste in public waterways. The list of rivers and creeks reads like a map of the eastern edge of Ohio and Western Pennsylvania: Lupo's companies have been accused of sullying not only the Mahoning, but the Beaver River, and the Meander, Mill and Eagle creeks.

Not only are the chemicals that Lupo's crews have dumped in the past contain bromide, but when water goes into a public water treatment system, it's treated with chlorine, which doesn't play well with bromide. Think carcinogenic .

Lupo's hijinks not only endanger every person or animal that drinks water from the rivers and streams that he's allegedly ordered his workers to pollute, but he endangers those workers as well. As was shown in an excellent piece of reporting by Rachel Morgan in Shale Reporter, workers who transport fracking waste can experience drastic and wide-ranging health conditions from handling the stuff.

But perhaps what surprised me the most was a quote the Vindicator repeated in the Sunday story that's linked above. In 1994, Lupo got into trouble for burying dirt that was laced with brine in Warren, Ohio. He claimed at the time that drilling waste was benign.

[rdharma]

9. D & L Energy got their operating pemit pulled......

..... for operations with Hardrock. But can they sell these fracking ops to another company to continue the operation?

From the D & L Energy website:

"For years, D&L Energy has joint ventured with multiple industry partners. The company drills primarily in the Appalachian Basin in Ohio and Pennsylvania"

I don't see D & L listed on the Ohio fracking map: http://innovationohio.org/fracking-map/

[theHandpuppet]

10. This might explain it

http://marcellusdrilling.com/2013/06/oh-wastewater-dumper-dl-energy-gets-business-death-sentence/

[rdharma]

11. Loosen the regs on toxic fracking disposal, or there will be more dumping!

Can you believe this crap?!!!!! WTF!!!!!????

http://www.the-daily-record.com/local%20news/2013/05/23/ohio-oil-gas-commission-to-decide-if-d-l-energy-can-continue-operating

"Cyphert acknowledged that Lupo directed the brine waste to be dumped, but he said those instructions were given through Hardrock Excavating, not D&L.

"Ben Lupo wore many hats," he said. "It is true at the time that he instructed the Hardrock employee [to dump the oilfield waste], he was also an officer with D&L Energy. He also held an officer position or was manager of many other companies, including Hardrock Excavating... The real questions before this commission is who is Ben Lupo acting on behalf of if he was in fact an employee, an officer, a manager, of several companies?"
..........

He then added, "Ben Lupo's a bad person. He intentionally directed someone to put brine down a sewer. He shouldn't have done that. But are those actions to be imputed to D&L Energy simply because he's an officer of the company or was an officer at the time?"

Cyphert said the revocations are ironic, given that the state has shut down a legal means of disposing of oilfield waste.

"In a period of great demand for brine disposal in northeast Ohio, the revocations probably unintentionally have the net effect of prolonging storage and may perhaps even encourage others to handle their brine in less than a lawful way," he said.

[bluedeathray]

8. This should be a felony

The disregard, disdain, and disrespect we show this planet (and each other), is going to bite us in the ass.

CORRECTION: Our kids asses...

How can we drill it into a businessman's head that this sort of short sighted, destructive practice will hurt HIS family too.

Bastards.